JWT to design campaign for GoaFest
10 Feb 2009
JWT will be designing the creative campaign for GoaFest this year. GoaFest is organised jointly by Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club Bombay, who since last year's event have put aside their past differences.
GoaFest 2009 is slated to be held over three days in the first week of April. Dates, speakers and other information on the festival will be announced shortly.
Ogilvy & Mather, which restricts its participation to the Ad Clubs Abby Awards, and Lowe Lintas India, which has been shirking industry award ceremonies for some time now, have decided not to participate in the festival.
McCann Erickson, a GoaFest participant in 2007, declined to participate last year, preferring to adopt a wait-and-watch policy to see how the unified awards betwen the two rival ad bodies work out.
JWT will present a campaign celebrating creative excellence in the advertising industry, taking into account the current economic turmoil and the recent terror attacks on Mumbai.
Last year, Contract had handled the GoaFest creatives, on the theme 'Advertising Comes to Goa'.
The GoaFest 2009 committee has also appointed 70 Event Management Group as the event partner, while Vaishnavi Corporate Communications will handle the public relations as PR partner for the event. Indiapreneur is the online technology partner.
Colvyn Harris, chief executive officer, JWT and chairperson, GoaFest 2009, was even earlier last year the chairman for the GoaFest.
"Last year, GoaFest witnessed participation from more than 3,000 delegates and we are confident of receiving an encouraging response this year, too. We believe that this is the best and the most credible platform for the creative minds of the advertising fraternity to get together and celebrate the spirit of advertising."
The other members in the GoaFest committee include Bhaskar Das, president, The Advertising Club Bombay and president, Times Group; Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer, Lodestar Universal; Suman Srivastava, chief executive officer, Euro RSCG; and Madhukar Kamath, president, AAAI and managing director and chief executive officer, Mudra Group.
GoaFest 2008 had seen the participation of Steve Gatfield, CEO, Lowe Worldwide; Craig Davis, former CCO, JWT Worldwide; Donald Gunn of The Gunn Report; and Kevin Swanepoel, president, The One Club, amongst many others.
The aim of the festival is to celebrate the spirit of advertising, encourage new ideas, to bring together like-minded people and create a platform that encourages the best.
